White House Correspondents' Dinner terror deja vu

“I think with the sense of the country and the atmosphere we have now, I think that we’re coming out of the Boston Marathon in a different way than we came out of Oklahoma City,” Walsh told POLITICO. “There’s a tremendous sense of relief in Boston and around the country and the mood is more of a positive one, that our law enforcement system worked and that Boston is now safe. So I think that’s an important tone that I think might make it a little bit easier to deal with this because I think people feel positive that our law enforcement system worked.”

While Obama may tweak his comedic stylings, Walsh thinks he’ll still adopt the tone that perhaps suits him — and this moment — best: Uplift.

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“I think Obama will take an inspirational tone and sort of an uplifting tone, that the Boston Marathon bombings showed the resilience of the country.”

Walsh said that there was talk of cancelling the dinner altogether in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombings, but it was ultimately rejected for the same reasons that make cancelling this year’s dinner unlikely (emails to Fox News’ Ed Henry, the current president of the Association, about the Association’s plans in response to the bombings, were not returned).

“After consulting with other people on the board, the feeling was that enough time had elapsed and the families in Oklahoma City, the families of those who had been killed, wanted to move on,” Walsh said.

“They were ready to move on themselves. So that made a big difference to me. … The important thing at that point, and I suspect the same thing will happen this Saturday night, is that the terrorists want our way of life to be disrupted. So as long as there’s a moment to honor the people who were killed and injured and reflect on the devastation, then I thikn people will be ready to move on and have the dinner. That’s the way I felt in1 995 and I suspect — nobody’s told me this — I suspect that’s something similar will happen on Saturday night.”